PARIS — With
France still reeling from the murder of a priest by Islamist
extremists, Prime Minister Manuel Valls proposed an antidote to the
increasingly hostile rhetoric about Islam.

In a newspaper
piece, Valls argued it was time to redefine Islam’s role in France
via a “pact” whose main effects would be to slash foreign funding
for mosques and make sure that preachers were trained domestically so
sermons were “compatible with democracy.”

“Islam has found
its place in the Republic,” Valls wrote in the Journal du Dimanche
weekly paper. “But … the times demand we look [with clear eyes]
on the rise of Islamism and of globalized jihadism and its
apocalyptic worldview.”

“We need a general
mobilization of all public actors and civil society … and Muslims
have a huge role to play. Our country must prove boldly to the world
that Islam is compatible with democracy.”

The prime
minister had a political incentive for making his pledge because
right-wing opponents are ramping up anti-Islamic rhetoric.

Valls offered few
details as to what form such a pact would take. A near dormant
institution named the “Foundation for Islam of France” could be
empowered to channel domestic funding for the construction of
mosques, whereas training of preachers is already carried out via the
French university system, albeit on a small scale.

But the prime
minister had a political incentive for making his pledge.

Right-wing opponents
are ramping up anti-Islamic rhetoric in the wake of terrorist attacks
in Nice and Rouen, and calling for sweeping measures against Islam.

“There is a
massive Arab-Muslim invasion,” said former MP and conservative
politician Nadine Morano. “I don’t want France to become Muslim.”

Last week,
center-right MP Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet called for a blanket ban
on Salafism — a form of Islam with 15,000 followers at 100 mosques
in France, according to official estimates.

A catholic monk
welcomes muslim worshippers in the Saint-Pierre-de-lAriane church,
prior to a mass on July 31, 2016, in Nice, southeastern France.
Muslims across France were invited to participate in Catholic Sunday
service to mourn the priest killed by jihadist teenagers

A catholic monk
welcomes Muslim worshippers in a church, on July 31, 2016, in Nice,
France. Muslims across France were invited to participate in Catholic
Sunday service to mourn the priest killed by jihadist teenagers |
Jean Christophe Magnenet/AFP via Getty Images

Marine Le Pen, head
of the far-right National Front, echoed the call, saying she wanted
to shut down all Salafist mosques. She also argued for “locking up”
all people suspected of terrorist activity, whether or not they had
been charged.

Former president
Nicolas Sarkozy joined in. All 11,500 people currently on terror
watchlists should be put under house arrest, he said, while visiting
any “jihadi” website should be considered a crime akin to
pedophilia.

The denunciations of
Islam, and the heated rhetoric on security were “unbearable,”
wrote Valls.

But he said that
foreign influence on French mosques via financing from countries with
radical agendas was causing a “terrible poison” to spread through
the country.

To fight it, he said
France needed to impose greater authority over Islam. Valls argued
that only preachers trained in France should be allowed to practice.
Furthermore, foreign funding for mosques should be drastically cut
back and offset by money from domestic sources.

The Foundation for
Islam of France had been an “utter failure,” wrote Valls on
Sunday, as were other attempts to establish formal lines of
communication between the state and Muslim community leaders.

“We must not be
discouraged,” he said. “We must create a balance with the Islam
of France under whose terms the Republic guarantees its right to
worship. If Islam does not help the Republic fight those who threaten
public liberty, it will be harder and harder for the Republic to
guarantee freedom of worship.”

‘Who’s boss?’

At the heart of the
matter is how France defines its relationship with Muslim
communities.

It’s a question
that has eluded generations of French politicians.

In calling for a
“pact” to be signed with Islam in France, Valls is echoing
France’s 1801 “Concord” with its Jewish community. Signed by
Napoleon Bonaparte, the Concord formalized French-Jewish relations by
establishing a central Jewish authority.

All attempts to
create a similar representative body for Islam have failed. The UOIF,
an umbrella group created in 1983, was exposed as detached and
powerless when its appeals to stop rioting in 2005 went unheeded. The
French Council of Muslim Faith, which was created under Sarkozy in
2003, has fared little better.

Past attempts to
nominate a Muslim authority gave rise to vicious squabbling between
subsections of France’s Muslim community.

Since neither group
had much authority, or ability to raise funds, French Muslims
appealed for foreign funding to finance the building of new mosques.
Dozens were funded by donors in Gulf States and Egypt, often with the
proviso that a preacher from the country responsible practice in the
building.

Now Valls wants to
beef up domestic mosque funding by resurrecting the Foundation. But
in order to give it teeth, he will need to relax laws forbidding the
state from offering direct subsidies to any religion — a thorny
subject in secular France.

There is also the
question of who would hold the purse strings. Past attempts to
nominate a Muslim authority gave rise to vicious squabbling between
subsections of France’s Muslim community — the French Council of
Muslim Faith is largely Algerian, for example, while the UOIF is
mostly Tunisian.

Such challenges
explain why Valls was vague on details to describe how his “pact”
with Islam might be implemented, or on what timeframe.